When a product has been on the market for a long time – especially a
controversial “tweak” -- we may tend to overlook its lasting value. Such may
be the case with a device so seemingly simple as the Bedini Dual Beam
Ultraclarifier.

When the original portable Bedini Handheld Clarifier first appeared on the
market in the early 1990’s, it was greeted by a slew of positive reviews. I
recall reading at least three or four reviews praising this “demagnetizing”
device that everyone agreed lowered the noise floor and dramatically improved
sound, detail, and depth of CD playback .

Exactly why the Bedini worked, however, remained a puzzle to those who wrote
about it. Many reviewers and readers asked the same question: If CDs are made
of aluminum, and aluminum doesn’t hold a magnetic charge, how is it possible
to demagnetize them? Various theories were forwarded in articles, reviews, and
letters to the editor. Our Editor, John Johnson, formulated a
theory based on static
electricity. Controversy continued for months on end. While some theories
seemed plausible, and some seemed to contradict others, none, to my
understanding at least, offered an incontrovertible explanation for why the
damn thing worked.

With the advent of new sonic and video formats, Bedini has added to its
initial claims of sharper CD sound that the Bedini Dual Beam Ultraclarifier
can also improve DVD sound quality and reduce unwanted noise. The company also
claims that the unit can promote better DVD picture resolution, sharpen images
of multimedia and photo CDs, and optimize color separation. More on this
below.

Personal Experience

Because the original small, handheld Bedini Clarifier was relatively
affordable, I decided to give it a try. All I had to do was put a CD on the
unit’s spindle, push a button on the side of the unit for a minute or so while
the CD whirled around, release the button, remove the disc once it stopped
whirling, and then play. The demagnetizing effect was reported to last for one
entire play of the CD. Easy as pie.

While I definitely heard sonic improvements after treatment with the handheld
clarifier, I found operation of the device a bit problematic. The unit worked
just fine if fastened it to a solid surface. If, however, it was handheld and
accidentally moved around while the CD was spinning, or wasn't held level; or
if a CD wasn't placed correctly on the unit’s spindle, the CD could spin
crooked and even get scratched on the unit’s base. This happened with several
CDs over the course of nine months. Not fun.

Less than a year after I purchased my handheld Clarifier, the store announced
the arrival of the Ultraclarifier. Then a single beam unit, the device looked
just as pictured herein, but lacked the clear plastic lid. Though the
Ultraclarifer cost well over $100, a liberal trade-in policy made the upgrade
quite tempting. Ultimately seduced by claims that this unit had a much more
profound effect on CDs, I traded-in my original unit for the Ultraclarifier.

The Ultraclarifier has several advantages over the hand-held unit. First, it’s
more powerful, especially if you turn the CD over after the first one-minute
treatment and treat its other side. Secondly, it easily rests on a flat
surface, and doesn’t scratch CDs if you mess up. Finally, the unit turns off
by itself after the CD whirls around for a minute or so. Unless you push the
button without putting a CD in the unit, which can potentially burn out the
motor - just pull out the plug fast and all will be okay - the unit is
foolproof. (Given that fact that many audiophiles have long ago surrendered
sanity in quest of the illusive supersystem, this is a major plus.)

The Proof is in the Puddin’

Shortly after my Ultraclarifier arrived, I invited Bay Area Audiophile Society
members over to hear my system at one of our System Hopping events. When the
first visitor offered up a Lyle Lovett disc for audition, I decided to
demonstrate the difference the Ultraclarifier made.

First we played his disc without treatment. I could not help noticing how flat
Lovett’s voice sounded against an instrumental background that seemed located
in virtually the same plane as the voice. Everything also sounded a bit gray
and uninvolving. Then I whirled the CD around on the Bedini and played it
again. The difference was huge! Lovett’s voice was now round and more
life-like; his back-up instrumentation, also far rounder and surrounded by
more air, was distinctly behind him. Furthermore, the grayness I heard the
first-time around had vanished, and in its place was far more color.

The improvement the Bedini made was enormous.

I have conducted this demonstration at least 50 times, not only for committed
audiophiles and local dealers, but also for high-end babes in the woods who
claimed they would never be able to hear things I could hear with my “trained”
ears. There has not been a single visitor chez Serinus whose eyes didn’t open
wide when they heard the difference the Bedini makes.

Skeptical readers may ask why I did not perform double-blind tests, summon a
panel of experts, or obtain two copies of the same CD, one treated with the Bedini and one not,
play them in an unannounced sequence, and then ask people to guess which one
had been treated. The answer is simple. I did not find the extra work
necessary because I could easily hear the difference. However, because of the
criticism that was sent to the Secrets Editor about my original review, we
will try to run this experiment to prove that the Bedini does indeed work, and
report the results subsequently.

Whenever I performed this demonstration, I never planted in a listener's mind
what I expected them to hear after I treated the disc. I simply said, "Tell me
if you hear a difference." If they said, "Yes" (which they ALL did), I asked
them to describe what they heard. Some people were better with words and the
nuances of sonic perception than others, but everyone basically declared with
certainty that treatment improved the sound of the CD.

Beating the Competition

A few months ago, my 7-year old single-beam Ultraclarifier began to
malfunction. While it still demagnetized discs, its motor sometimes kept on
whirring away for minutes at a time until I manually unplugged the AC/DC
adapter from the unit.

Unable to find a replacement Bedini, and forgetting to do a search on the net,
I tried the far more expensive Furutech demagnetizer. I was quite drawn to the
Furutech’s silence, and to claims that its effects lasted longer than the
Bedini, making demagnetization before each play unnecessary. What I didn’t
like, however, were warnings to keep one’s distance from the unit while it was
on, and to demagnetize no more than 10 CDs in a row without taking a break.
The device did not feel like it would contribute to long life and good health.

More to the point, several days of use did not yield the effects I desired.
While discs certainly sounded better than before treatment, the results did
not seem as three-dimensional and life-like as with my ailing Bedini.

Finally, after Furuteching and playing a disc, and wondering where the
three-dimensionality I was accustoming to hearing had gone, I placed the same
disc in my ailing Bedini, whirled it around for a minute, and took a second
listen. Even without treating both sides of the disc, which is what Bedini
recommends one do, the improvement was dramatic. All the three- dimensionality
and silence I was accustomed to hearing had returned. Clearly the Bedini was
doing something that the Furutech wasn’t. Bye bye Furutech.

Enter the Dual Beam Ultraclarifier

At this point, a web search turned up the Bedini website. When I wrote Gary
Bedini to explain my problem, he graciously supplied me with a new Dual Beam
Ultraclarifier.

The Dual Beam unit has several advantages over the original single-beam
Clarifier. First of all, it’s more powerful. Secondly, it also washes CDs (if
desired) by using a washing fluid that comes with the unit. To make washing
possible, the unit boasts a clear plastic flip-down lid to contain the washing
fluid. Even if you don’t wash CDs with the unit, the lid prevents dust from
settling inside and getting stirred up when the unit is engaged. Finally, the
Dual Beam Ultraclarifier runs much quieter than the older units. These are all
major plusses.

Technical Explanation

The Bedini Company claims that, "with its patented Electro Magnetic Beam
Configuration, the Clarifier polarizes the polymer in such a way as to
maximize the laser's ability to retrieve stored data."

Although I would never claim to be a technical expert -- I am a music lover,
performer, and critic who has developed the ability to hear subtle differences
in sound, and has a clear sense of what live, unamplified music sounds like in
various venues -- I found this explanation incomplete to say the least. I
therefore conducted several e-mail exchanges with Gary Bedini in which I asked
him to explain, among other things, (a) what the "beam" was of which there now
two, (b) what the whirling accomplished, and (c) why the unit did what it did.

After conducting several e-mail exchanges with Gary Bedini, I ended up with
the following information:

“The Dual Beam runs opposing beams (specially configured magnetic structures)
that oppose each other at the base of the motor.

“Extensive research has gone into the development of this product. Although
the disk does hold electrostatic charges just from normal operation, it is
also degraded from the manufacturing processes as well. We have incorporated a
highly specialized electromagnetic beam(s) configuration to process the disk,
as well as centrifugal force to achieve the ultimate treatment.

“It is apparent that electrostatic charge alters the polymer’s configuration
and causes the laser’s light to diffract while reading the bits of information
encased in the disk; thus more error correction is employed to compensate for
this effect. This means that the CD has more noise, causing reduced clarity
and degraded sound to the specific tones of the original recording. By simply
removing the electrostatic charge it will not re-align the crystalline
structure of the polymer composition which causes the diffraction.”

If you would like to know if I find this explanation adequate, the answer is
that I do not. However, I confess that I am not prepared to sacrifice my unit
for the highest good, dismantle it, ask technical experts on the Secrets staff
to spend untold hours using sophisticated measuring devices to come up with an
incontrovertible explanation for why the device works, and then buy another
unit.

Instead, I have decided to trust my ears. The bottom line is, what I and
everyone who has ever joined me in listening to a CD before and after Bedini
treatment have discovered is that using the Bedini makes a huge difference in
sound quality. I may not be able to explain how the device works, but I am
sure that it does.

Testing on DVD-Video

As noted above, Bedini claims improvements in DVD sonic and picture quality.
Alas, I was only able to test claims for sonic improvement. I’ve got a great
audio system, but my DVD-video setup consists of a cheapie Pioneer DVD-V
player modified to accept a detachable powercord. (I’m currently using a
Shunyata Python.) While the digital signal is carried via a Nordost Silver
Shadow RCA to BNC digital cable to my Theta Gen. Va DAC, video goes through
standard video cabling into a cheap Radio Shack unit and then into an 18-year
old (at least) 19” Quasar TV which, most of the time, resides in my closet.
Sometimes the TV works fine, and sometimes it doesn't. Hence, I can do a fine
job evaluating sound quality, but I leave evaluation of picture quality to
others on the Secrets team.

I can tell you with surety that the sound of DVD-Video improved dramatically
after using the Bedini. While the picture may have improved as well, I’d need
better cables and a TV monitor on less than its last legs to say for sure.

Conclusion

The Bedini Dual Beam Ultraclarifier, which treats DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Photo CDs
as well as audio CDs, works wonders on sound. For the mere two or so minutes
it takes to fully treat a disc, the improvements are striking. IMHO, the
resultant improvement in sonic performance is the equivalent of adding several
bits of resolution plus increasing the sampling rate.

If you’ve never before used the Bedini Dual Beam Ultraclarifier, you owe it to
yourself to give it whirl. If you give it an honest try, I believe you’ll be
amazed at the difference it makes. In fact, I think it quite possible that you
will find it indispensable.

Nordost SPM Reference speaker cable to the speakers
Nordost single-ended Quatro Fils interconnects from Theta to preamp and
preamp to amp;
Nordost Silver Shadow AES/EBU digital interconnects from transport to P1A to
Theta; Shunyata Python power cable on the transport; Nordost power cable on
the preamp; Custom Power Company Top Gun High Current power cables on the
Theta and the amp; and the Ensemble power cable on the P-1A, Power Plant, and
Ensemble Power Link.